Finweek - English

You’re never going to win me over if you feel the need to mention that you’ve got a “very nice place in Franschhoek”. Maybe we can forgive celebrity-style entrepreneur Richard Branson’s ignorance – he lives, in so many ways, in a world very far remov

sechaba is a salesman in a car dealership. He is incredibly good at his job. Each month, he outsells all his colleagues. The reason for his success is that he can assess the needs of his clients as they walk through the door, and he has a Schalk Brit

there is no denying that black economic empowerment (BEE) has taken a huge step backwards over the last decade, slowing down the wealth accumulation by black people which started in 1994 under the presidency of Nelson Mandela and gained momentum duri

– The late billionaire and investor Allan Gray calling for entrepreneurs to strive towards being role models in one of his last interviews, with author Vanessa Stoykov, as he shared his vision for E-Squared Investments last year. E-Squared Investment

Several hundred protestors marched on the Glenhove offices of South32 last month bearing T-shirts declaring that Seriti Resources is “the new Guptas”. Seriti Resources is the black-owned company that successfully bid for the 28m tonnes a year South32

reg Demana, CEO of Wescoal Holdings, could do with a blast of good cheer this Christmas. Having taken over the reins of Wescoal in February, Demana, a former resources banker at Nedbank Capital, has run into troubled times, starting with a slide in t

for a startling example of how opaque, and even unfriendly, mining regulations have hampered economic development in South Africa, look no further than the case of Aquila Steel’s Avontuur manganese prospect. You have to go back about six years to a p

Fairtree’s Global Real Estate Prescient Fund aims to provide clients with access to high-quality, international real estate assets with capital appreciation potential, while also delivering solid dollar-denominated dividends. Established in March 201

barloworld, one of the world’s largest sellers of construction-related equipment, has set its eyes on a Mongolian-based competitor to boost its international presence. The company divested its Iberian unit and now aims for more profitable world regio

vodacom, South Africa’s largest mobile phone operator, reported lacklustre revenue growth of 3.9%, mainly buoyed by increased service sales, for the six months through 30 September. Despite the meagre rise in turnover, the group delivered adjusted pr

Rolfes, a chemicals manufacturer, joins the long list of more than 15 stocks delisting from the JSE this year as very cheap valuations see a mass exodus from the exchange. All the better too, as a spat between Rolfes and the bourse is heating up foll

in the previous issue (7 November), I wrote about trading, and in particular about gearing via the use of derivatives, as well as what we should (or shouldn’t) be trading. I promised to return to the other two parts of the equation: How to employ a s

much of the South African asset management industry has a considerable amount to celebrate at the end of the second decade of the 2000s. True, it’s been an immensely difficult period to navigate, yet for the most part investment houses highlighted by

investing money may seem daunting to many, but an enormous amount can be learned from Prudential Investment Managers’ Cape Town-based equity team, which consecutively emerged as the Morningstar ‘Best Fund House (Large Fund Range)’ between 2016 and 20

the simple economics of supply and demand illustrate why following the crowd is not good for investing: If there is an increase in demand for an item, but supply is limited, prices tend to rise. But this does not necessarily mean the item is more val

generally, you should not alter your investment strategy or its execution – unless it was incorrect at the outset, or your personal or financial circumstances change. Absent these changes, the basic rule is: “Do not let shorter-term market fluctuatio

most people are frightened of investing on the stock exchange. Especially if they’re nearing retirement or are retired, as people often are when they have substantial sums of money that could be invested in shares. Despite this, shares are among the

finance minister Tito Mboweni, in his recent medium-term budget policy statement, provided a difficult outlook for investors over the short and medium term, but investors need to be measured in their reaction to the worse-than-expected economic outlo

in the shadow of weak economic growth during the past five years, many South African investors have become pretty fed up with being told that we ought to be grateful for a scenario that isn’t as bad as it’s often made out to be. Finance minister Tito

with the Rugby World Cup behind us, we can proudly say that we are the world champions. We destroyed England in the final. This when, in March 2018, there was absolutely no excitement about this year’s World Cup on a local front. Few South Africans w

TASTE HOLDINGS The sorry saga of Taste Holdings is coming to an end with a decision to exit the food business and keep its jewellery unit, a division they tried to exit two years ago. The news is also that Starbucks is being sold for R7m, which raise

one of the core tenets of being a shareholder is that at a company’s annual general meeting (AGM), every more votes, but that’s shareholder is equal. You get one vote for every share you hold. So yes, the larger shareholders get because they have a l

When French energy company Total announced in February that it had discovered a potential 1bn barrels of “wet” gas off the coast of Mossel Bay, some dubbed the find a gamechanger for South Africa’s energy sector. Steve Clark, a PhD student in the mec

Any turbulence in the Nigerian economy is often ascribed to it being too reliant on oil. Oil, however, accounts for only 9.8% of Nigeria’s economy, according to Richard Ladbrook, portfolio manager at Investec Asset Management. The issue, according to

whenever the office phone rang, Jeanette Marais wanted to answer it. That was how she realised a career as an actuarial scientist wasn’t for her. “I’ll tell you exactly how it happened,” says Marais, deputy CEO of the R30bn life insurance and investm

in many other countries, the reporting of corruption or suspected corruption is at one’s own will. In South Africa, it is a crime not to report it. The potential reputational damage when a company gets an investigation into corruption wrong, can be b